need help, anyone remember this rather obscure story?

[G_j]

I remember reading this about the last Repub convention in Philly:

Tom Ridge who was then gov of PA read some RW propaganda that the protesters were funded by the "Soviets" and proceeded to spread this information to the Philly police. Does anyone remember this? In searching I found references to protester trials and this propaganda that the police used as an excuse to make preemptive arrests but no mention of Ridge. I'm sure I read at the time that it started with Ridge. Am I crazy? Every time I think of Tom Ridge being in charge of homeland security I think of this story.

[Melinda]

1. Here ya go:

http://www.guerrillanews.com/newswire/172.html

Ridge's use of a Malden Institute report to justify the raid on the R2K protesters was particularly troubling. This ultra-right wing think tank used innuendo, lies and rumor in its propaganda-filled manifesto, suggesting that the global protest movement was funded by rubles smuggled out of the former Soviet Union. The raid, prior to the actual protest, raised many troubling legal questions, most notably prior restraint of First Amendment rights.

[G_j]

2. Malden Institute

thats it! Thank you Sooo much. :toast: :loveya:

Now can you imagine that the person in charge of the "homeland's" security reads and believes this kind of insanity? Ridge and Ashcroft make quite a pair!

---
on edit: on the Malden Institute:
http://www.pww.org/past-weeks-2000/Old%20McCarthyism.htm

The pennsylvania state police and the 'old McCarthyism'

By Norman Markowitz

The Philadelphia Enquirer on Sept. 10 reported a bizarre but important story – one that shows the Gestapo tactics and lunatic anti-Communism associated with J. Edgar Hoover, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and Joseph McCarthy are continuing. In a 23 report attempting to justify their infiltration, illegal search and seizures and brutal arrests and detention of protesters at the recent Republican National Convention, the Pennsylvania State Police cited "evidence" that the protesters were working for and funded by the CPUSA(the Communist Party of Eastern Pennsylvania particularly), trade unions connected to the "Soviet era" World Federation of Trade Unions, and other Communist and "Soviet" agencies.

The "source" of these allegations, according to the Enquirer, turns out to be something called the "Malden Institute," whose leading figures include a Florida televangelist with connections to Jerry Falwell, a novelist whose stock in trade was accounts of "KGB" disinformation campaigns, and, most of all an Englishman named John Rees, who, according to ultra-right watcher Chip Berlet, has John Birch Society connections and has been spreading Soviet and Communist conspiracy stories through ultra-right networks since the 1970s, undaunted even by the dismemberment of the Soviet Union.

The Malden Institute, according to the Enquirer, is to a significant extent funded by the Carthage Foundation of Richard Mellon Scaife, the Daddy Warbucks of many ultra-right organizations and campaigns, most of all the attempt to impeach President Clinton.

..more..

[Solly Mack]

3. Couple of links

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/sep2000/rnc-s12.shtml

http://www.progressive.org/pmp0701/pmpwo301.html

http://www.sfbg.com/News/34/45/45nffbi.html

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/12/10/MN146168.DTL

[G_j]

4. excellent!

DUers rock!!

I wonder what Richard Mellon Scaife is doing these days?

[G_j]

5. Ridge signed 214 death warrants in six years as governor

No wonder Bush likes him. :scared:

[Solly Mack]

6. reckon they share experiences?

sick puppies all

[EastofEdon]

7. you can bet Ridge will be active behing the scenes

in the coming conventions!

[G_j]

8. well I wonder where this story originated?

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/07/23/fbi_warns_of_possible_domestic_threat_against_media/


FBI warns of possible threat against media

By Shelly Murphy and Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff | July 23, 2004

The FBI warned Boston television stations yesterday that news trucks might be attacked by members of a radical domestic group that wants to disrupt next week's Democratic National Convention.

''The FBI is investigating information that members of a domestic group plan to disrupt the by attacking media vehicles," FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said last night.

The FBI didn't release any other details, including the name of the group, when it might attack, or whether the information has been deemed credible.

Marcinkiewicz said the information is being investigated by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in Boston.

Bev Ford, a spokeswoman for the Boston Police Department, said the FBI warned Boston police yesterday that media vehicles might be targeted by a domestic group, but, ''We've got no information on where or when or how."

..more..

[Stone_Spirits]

9. something like this could be happening again

couldn't it?